bestPT simplifies scheduling and patient relationship management through the use of it’s revolutionary workflow management process. This system enables practice owners to keep track of their patient visits, along with all other relevant work, in a single location. bestPT helps practice owners create a systematic patient relationship management process while providing them complete quality monitoring and control.

Last week CMS essentially reversed their compliance date stance for the Meaningful Use program in what amounted to a big smack in the face to any health care provider that has put in the effort and time to knock Stage 2 out of the park. Providers working hard to successfully meet the Stage 2 measures shouldn’t feel that it is all for naught. You are on the cutting edge of using technology to deliver better care, and that makes you some of the best care providers out there.

New and seasoned Practice Managers and Physicians know that handling the day to day tasks of running a medical practice can be time consuming. Administrative tasks and responsibilities have increased with ever-changing government regulations, Medicare laws, and legal concerns. Efficiency appears to be a losing battle, and stressful workflows take a toll on delivering compassionate patient care. A paperless office was presented as a time and cost saving endeavor that would lead to better patient care. Or was it a trick?

Sound familiar?

A polished representative came to the office to demonstrate their EMR, Practice Management, and Medical Billing system. You were convinced, “this is the solution, what a relief, Ah…!” Thousands of dollars and countless hours spent on implementation and training. Finally, the “go live” date arrived. Then, reality hit; the staff forgot how to upload documents, the doctor was in the exam room trying unsuccessfully to view an MRI with the patient, and you frantically tried to fix the issues. The workflow stopped as panic took over. You finally phoned customer support and you were placed on hold. “Ugh,” you began to question…”How much longer will the learning curve actually take?” “Did I make the right system selection?” “Why did I try to improve efficiency?” “It really wasn’t that bad and where is that polished sales person now?”

Most of us have very full lives and find value in saving time by researching and purchasing almost everything on Amazon.com. Amazon is a cutting edge retailer that has mastered IT engineering and the customer experience.

Why does health care not provide a similar experience? It is rare to speak with a practice that is pleased with their present electronic workflow. Most claim that it slows them down and takes the personal relation away from the patient/clinician encounter. Perhaps, in the future, there is a way for Health Information Technology to follow the Amazon-inspired philosophy of delivering a seamless experience from point of contact to follow-up visit. Does your EMR, Practice Management, and Medical Billing system enhance the patient experience?

Emulating Amazon is no small feat. To learn more about “What Health Care Can Learn from Amazon,” attend a special webinar event hosted by athenaHealth on Wednesday, March 19th, at 12:15 PM EST.

Throughout the past two years, I have rotated mainly through one system. To my dismay, it had been one of the worst as far as electronic health records (EHR) are concerned. Most days I observed the workflow, thinking “If they just did this, they would cut the duration of morning rounds in half.” Let us look past the point that I was usually bored out of my mind!
There was just so much wasted time in dealing with documentation and communication. We are in the digital age. It really shouldn’t be this complicated. I cannot imagine how frustrated the residents and attending physicians must have gotten during this nonsense. This part of the job, which is non-medical, has likely been the direct cause of many doctors’ burnout statuses.
Since I have limited exposure to other systems, I am curious to know if this was a well-below average situation or a fairly normal one (feel free to comment below).

The list of reasons why specialists don’t like their EHRs could go on for pages, but what it really comes down to is this: most EHRs try to satisfy everyone’s needs, an impossible feat in a world with hundreds of medical specialties. Hospitals and primary care practices can sometimes make a one-size-fits-all EHR work, but specialists have a much harder time adjusting to having an EHR as part of their workflow.

A recent Black Book Rankings survey found that specialists are much less happy with their current EHR than family physicians are. However, most physicians place the blame on themselves. The top three reasons for considering a vendor switch all have to do with picking the right EHR:

Solution does not meet the individual needs of the practice, including workflow (80 percent)

The practice did not adequately assess its needs before selecting the original EHR (79 percent)

Application Programming Interfaces are up for discussion today, is this the future of interoperability with medical records? Anyone in the HIT/EHR business today can pretty much attest to the complexities that have evolved and is there anything or anyone to fault? Not really it is just the way it happened. Continue reading: Is HIT Interoperability in the Nature of Healthcare?

The Office of the ONC has begun putting together a plan to look and find areas where electronic medical records can cause harm to patients. Two agencies, the American Medical Association and the Texas Medical Association have made comments and suggestions. iHealthBeat has done a nice job providing a summary of the recommendations made by each. Continue reading: AMA and TMA Comment on ONC Patient Safety Plan